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Planks, Specks, Teeth, and Bathroom Floors

Have you had any good plank and speck moments lately? You know, the kind of moment where you work so hard at correcting the faults in others, only to realize you have the exact same problem.

This happened recently to my good friend, Ruth, as she was teaching her class of sixth graders about these guys. She literally stopped in the middle of her lesson and said to her room full of unexpecting eleven and twelve year olds, “Woah….I’m being convicted right now guys,” when she caught a glimpse of her own plank. (I won’t tell her whole story, though, because I hope to one day talk her into blogging about it here. Stay tuned.)

Well, I had my most recent moment like this in the shower yesterday. (All great thinking happens in the shower, right?) Here I am carrying on a quite lively rant with myself about my parents’ bathroom floor. You see, they have some water damage in their upstairs bathroom. The area under the toilet is feeling quite spongy, but they keep putting off getting it fixed. There are probably many reasons why they haven’t fixed it yet….time, money, denial that it’s a big problem, or maybe even embarrassment that it got that way in the first place. As I’m thinking of all this, I’m saying to myself, “They need to get it fixed now. This small spongy spot would be one thing to fix, but if they let it turn into a real hole, it will become a huge project.”

And then it hit me. I have the exact same problem happening in my own head. Literally.

You see a few months ago I was enjoying a hot turkey sandwich, so expertly cooked by Jay on his Panini grill, when I bit down on something crunchy hard. My mind immediately knew it was a tooth, but I tried to convince myself that it was instead a seed or nut from the super hearty bread Jay had chosen. Of course my first guess was right, and I now had a pretty gaping hole on the side of a lower, right tooth. I admit I shed a few tears at the impending pain I knew this would cause both my mouth and my wallet, and I vowed to call the dentist in the morning.

Except I never did. I blamed it on the fact that I forgot or that I was too busy during any school day (when the dentist is open) to make the call. But that is so not true. I just, plain and simple, avoided it. Time, money, denial, embarassment…all the exact same reasons why I’m sure my parents are avoiding their needed repairs.

So right there in the shower my plank came into full view. Why hadn’t I made that connection before?

So I’m done avoiding it. Tomorrow I’m going to suck up all of my fears and just call the blasted dentist. And if he happens to be closed because of the holiday, I’m going to call every day until I get him. No more excuses…especially now that I have you holding me to it.

5 thoughts on “Planks, Specks, Teeth, and Bathroom Floors”

I didn’t have a word for this a few days back when I realized my frustration with someone else was due to my frustration with myself for doing the same thing! Now I can’t recall what it was, even though it was a huge “aha!” to read this and feel better for seeing it’s not just me.

I resonate with your “thinking in the shower”. I do a lot of thinking and praying in the shower. One morning my husband stuck his head in the door and asked, “What is taking you so long in the shower?” I replied, “I’m washing away my sins and some days it takes longer than others!” He hasn’t rushed me out of the shower since that day. Planks or specks – be gone!

Well, I got out of bed to compose a rather lengthy reply about judgment — but the computer ate it — random key stroke error took it away — while I was re-reading the scripture in my Bible. I’m going to assume divine intervention. :o) Great photo!